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January 2nd is unofficial National Science Fiction Day. Ever hear of a guy named Isaac Asimov? He was only one of the most famous science fiction writers of his time, which is why Sci-Fi Day is celebrated on his birthday! He also had some pretty impressive sideburns. Now, no one actually seems to be certain of the exact date he was born, including Asimov himself, but he chose to celebrate it on January 2nd and someone down the line decided to celebrate science fiction on the same day. 

Questionable origins aside, what is one to do on a National Science Fiction Day? Read, of course! What could be better than dedicating a day to reading all those books you got for Christmas? In honor of Mr. Asimov and sci-fi writers and readers everywhere, here’s a list of my favorite sci-fi novels, as well as some sci-fi classics that I plan to pick up and enjoy on January 2nd.

January 2nd is unofficial National Science Fiction Day. Ever hear of a guy named Isaac Asimov? He was only one of the most famous science fiction writers of his time, which is why Sci-Fi Day is celebrated on his birthday! He also had some pretty impressive sideburns. Now, no one actually seems to be certain of the exact date he was born, including Asimov himself, but he chose to celebrate it on January 2nd and someone down the line decided to celebrate science fiction on the same day. 

Questionable origins aside, what is one to do on a National Science Fiction Day? Read, of course! What could be better than dedicating a day to reading all those books you got for Christmas? In honor of Mr. Asimov and sci-fi writers and readers everywhere, here’s a list of my favorite sci-fi novels, as well as some sci-fi classics that I plan to pick up and enjoy on January 2nd.

Whenever some exciting news regarding one (or, in this case, three) of our books gets released, we kind of look like that scene from The Office. And while we're having some trouble staying calm, we think it's totally justified–we just got news that three of our books have been selected as part of Amazon's Best Books of 2014!

Find Momo was selected for the Arts & Photography category, Hollow City for Best in Teen & Young Adult, and the William Shakespeare's Star Wars Trilogy was selected as an Editor's Holiday Gift Pick for Fun & Quirky Books! (It's like that last category was made for us!)

High-five, everybody!

Update: Horrorstor has been added in the semi-final round! Thanks for voting it in, everyone! 

Ah, the Goodreads Choice Awards. I don't know about you guys, but I get pretty psyched for them every single year. I knew they would be opening up this morning, and I had a hard time sleeping, waking up and checking Twitter to see if they had gone live.

This year, Quirk has three FOUR titles nominated in the Goodreads Choice Awards, and we are absolutely thrilled. 

HORRORSTOR by Grady Hendrix is nominated in Best Horror of 2014.

WORLD OF TROUBLE by Ben H. Winters is nominated in Best Science Fiction of 2014.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S THE EMPIRE STRIKETH BACK by Ian Doescher is nominated in Best Humor of 2014. 

HOLLOW CITY by Ransom Riggs is nominated in Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction of 2014.

Go cast your votes! And congrats to Ben, Ransom, Grady, and Ian! 

I was probably 11 or 12 the first time I read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and ever since then I’ve read the book about every five years.  Why do I keep coming back to it?  There’s something I can’t shake in the story—the slow descent from order to chaos, the images it conjures of a society created entirely by boys, and of course the characters: the wise Ralph, the alluring and dangerous Jack, the annoying (but ultimately correct) Piggy.

Because I am who I am, I can’t help crossing Lord of the Flies in my mind with Shakespeare’s Tempest.  Both start with a wreck and take place on an island.  If Lord of the Flies had started with a shipwreck instead of a plane crash, one could imagine Prospero’s daughter Miranda looking on with fear:

Miranda: The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,

But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,

Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered

With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,

Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,

Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock

Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd.

Had I been any god of power, I would

Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere

It should the good ship so have swallow’d and

The fraughting souls within her.

In this version, Caliban goes around planting fear and unrest among the boys.  Ariel tries as hard as he can to undo Caliban’s work, but ultimate it’s too late: where Tempest moves from chaos to order and resolution, William Shakespeare’s Lord of the Flies turns from relative order to chaos and destruction.  Prospero’s efforts at pacification fail, and only a passing ship manages to restore order and rescue the boys.  This becomes the Anti-Tempest, the one where things don’t work out in the end.

And maybe that’s why I loved Lord of the Flies, even as a middle schooler.  Because sometimes things are messy, sometimes “happily ever after” isn’t a thing.  Sometimes everything goes to hell and all the adults can do is look away:

The tears began to flow and sobs shook him [Ralph]. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.

The officer, surrounded by these noises, was moved and a little embarrassed.  He turned away to give them time to pull themselves together; and waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance.